Bears down Gladiators to boost play-off hopes

BOSS HAILS BIG BACK-TO-BACK SUCCESSES

- By KEITH MCGHIE

JADE Mudgway believes that Redcar have put one foot firmly in the end-of-season Championship playoffs after capitalising on a Plymouth side determined to press the self-destruction button in back-to-back clashes at the weekend.

The already weakened Gladiators lost almost half a team to injuries in a horrific 24-hour spell which wrecked their own chances of extending the scheduled season.

Both former Bears skipper Ben Barker and fast-rising British talent Joe Thompson went down in a spectacular third-race crash at the ECCO Arena, then Danish guest Tobias Thomsen was also forced to withdraw midway through the return clash in Devon.

The two incidents made life easier but never easy for the Teessiders, who won both encounters comfortably before the final heat but could not relax en route to the subsequent maximum-five league points haul.